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Of all the faux finishes you can create on a wall, few are as enjoyable as marbling. Begin by painting your wall a neutral color, such as ivory. Then prepare for a two-step marbling process: first by bagging the wall to create a gentle mottled effect for the background and then by creating veins with a fine paintbrush or feather. It is especially important that you find a piece of marble that you’d like to recreate so you can refer to it often. At the end, you just might surprise yourself with your artistic prowess.

1

Create the look of a real marbled wall by breaking your wall into four equal quadrants and marking them lightly with a pencil. The middle point – where the four squares meet – is where the marbled veins should emanate from. The veins in each quadrant should arch in a different direction, just like real marble. In the top left square, the veins should move on an angle from the mid-point and up to the left; in the top right square, the veins should move on an angle from the mid-point up to the right; in the bottom left square, the veins should move on angle from the mid-point down to the left; and in the bottom right square, the veins should move on an angle from the mid-point down to the right. Taken together, your quadrants will look like mirror images of each other, just like a real marble wall.

2

Work in one of the four quadrants at a time to create your marbled wall. First do the bagging technique described below in each quadrant. Then follow up with the veining technique in each quadrant.

3

Apply the two different colored glazes with two different paint brushes in a random manner on the wall. Leave some white space between the two colors and do not overlap them.

4

Crumple a plastic bag in your hand and dab the bag over one of the glaze colors on the wall. Take another plastic bag and dab it over the second glaze color on the wall. At this point, the colors may begin to blend together somewhat, and this is normal.

5

Take another clean plastic bag and blend the two glaze colors together until you achieve an appealing marbled texture. If the bag becomes loaded with paint, wipe off the glaze with a paper towel, realizing that a clean bag will deepen the marbled texture on the wall.

6

Allow the glazes to dry completely before moving on to the veining stage.

7

Create veins by dipping the end of a feather or a fine paintbrush into one or two glaze colors and drawing irregular lines on the wall. The lines should be thicker in some places – just like real marble – and trail off at the ends. Be sure to follow your wall diagram so that the veins follow the correct trajectory on the wall. Refer to your marble piece for inspiration, but don’t create too many veins. The look of most real marble is subtle.

8

Blur hard vein lines by brushing over them on a right angle with a softening brush. Exert a light touch so that you don’t unwittingly create brush stroke lines.

Things You Will Need

Pencil

Glazes in two colors for background

Glazes in one or two colors for veining

Paintbrushes

Plastic bags

Feather or fine paintbrush

Softening brush

Tips

Practice is vital to the success of most faux paint finishes. You may be able to skip the practice stage with the bagging technique, but you’d be wise to practice veining on a poster board before painting veins on your wall.

Create your glazes by mixing a 4-to-1 ratio of paint versus water or a glazing medium.

For rooms with a chair rail, create a professional look by only bagging the wall beneath the rail and bagging and veining the wall above the rail.

About the Author

With education, health care and small business marketing as her core interests, M.T. Wroblewski has penned pieces for Woman's Day, Family Circle, Ladies Home Journal and many newspapers and magazines. She holds a master's degree in journalism from Northern Illinois University.